Container for coils of wire



Dec. 26, 1961 c. o. BRUESTLE CONTAINER FOR COILS OF WIRE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 5, 1960 INVENTOR. 6 /1/91 0, 590571: BY 2 g f AffokMf/J Dec. 26, 1961 c. o. BRUESTLE CONTAINER FOR COILS OF WIRE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 3, 1960 INVENTOR T311. E. U/IEL 9 5205572 ATTO/QAJEVY 3,014,577 CONTAINER FOR COILOF WIRE Carl 0. Bruestle, Metuchen, N.J., assignor to Syncro Machine Company, Perth Amboy, NJL, a corporation of New Jersey Filed June 3, 1960, Ser. No. 33,668 11 Claims. (Ci. 206-52) The present invention relates to containers for wire coils and particularly to a container in which wire is formed into a coil as it comes from the drawing machine.

Frequently wire is taken directly'from the final drawing block of a wire drawing machine and deposited in'a barrellike container in which it is either shipped or more frequently transported to different locations in a drawing plant for further operations thereupon.

When wire is deposited in a barrel as stated above, it frequently, if not invariably, becomes snarled, especially when an attempt is made to feed it to a processing machine at high speed.

The present invention substitutes a modified form of container for the barrel-like structure heretofore used. The structure is such that the turns of the. wire coil are deposited in the barrel in regular fashion and, in addition, are retained in the container during transportation thereof toy that they do not become intertwined and snarled, whereby the wire may be fed from the container at any desired rate without difficulty.

The structure of the present invention comprises generally a cylindrical container having a concentric cylindrical core therein and having means providing what is essentially a spring urged false bottom for the container so that as the wire is deposited the angle between the drawing or coiling block and the coil formed in the container is maintained substantially constant. In' the prior forms of containers utilized wherein no such false bottom arrangement is provided, the angle changes throughout the filling of the container, the angle at the beginning being so steep that proper deposit of the coil in the container is not possible.

It is an object of the invention to provide a container in which wire may be coiled asit leaves the final drawing or coiling block of a wire drawing machine without snarling.

It is another object of the invention to provide a container having means for maintaining the angle of the wire as it is deposited in the container at such a value as to ensure proper deposit of the wire in the container.

It is another object of the invention to provide a container having spring urged means supplying a support for the wire coil in the container so that the wire never has to be deposited at the full depth of the container but is instead deposited at a point substantially half the depth of the container thus providing for use of large volume containers without at the same time incurring the difficulty of snarling normally present with such large volume containers- It is a further object of the invention to provide means for holding the wire coil in place in the container during transportation thereof thereby assuringthat the wire can be fed from the container at high rates of speed.

Other objects and features of the invention will be apparent when the following description is considered in connection with the annexed drawings, in which,

FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of the wire coil container of my invention;

FIGURE 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the coil container of FIGURE 1. the view being taken on the plane of the line 2-2-of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a horizontal cross-sectional view of the ice coil container of my invention, this view being taken on the plane of the line 3-3 of FIGURE 2; and

FIGURE 4 is a transverse cross-sectional view of a cover for the container of FIGURE 1.

Referring now to the drawings and particularly to FIGURE 2, there is shown at 10 the usual cylindrical container having therein a central concentric core 11. Both container 10 and core 11 are, in accordance with my invention, provided with slots respectively designated 12 and 13. In the embodiment shown these slots are four in number and are provided at the points of a circumference and the slots extend upwardly from the base to a point substantially half of the container and core depth.

Resting upon the upper edge of core 11 is a disk 14 provided with the circular flange 15 near its periphery, the flange serving to locate the disk 14 on the upper edge of the core. Mounted within the core 11 is a disk '15 having an upwardly turned integral flange 17 which fits somewhat loosely within the core 11. Mounted on disk 14 are four chordal ribs 18. In a similar manner four chordal ribs 2% are mounted on disk 16. At corresponding points in ribs 18 and 20 apertures are provided through which the ends of springs 21 extend. Thus there are four springs 21 extending between apertures provided in four corresponding pairs of ribs 18, 20, the ribs 13 being provided on the underside of disk 14 and the ribs 20 on the upper side of disk 16. Fixed to the upper surface of disk 16 are four radially extending rods 22, each rod being fastened to the plate 16 by means of a screw 23. Since the rods 22 extend radially outward and pass through the slots 12 and 13, they need not be fastened at more than one point and the screws 23 are therefore ample. Additionally, the rods 22 limit the upper movement of the disk 16 since they make contact with the ends of slots 12 and 13.

In the preferred embodiment of my invention disk 16 is provided centrally thereof with a cylindrical housing 24 which is fastened to the disk adjacent a central'circular opening 25 provided therein. Mounted at the upper end 26 of the housing 24 by means of a bolt 27 is a spring 28 which extends downwardly and terminates at point 30 which spring cooperates with the springs 21 in a manner shortly to be described.

The slots 12 in container 10 are enclosed by means of the channel. members 31 which are fastened to the container by any suitable means with the arms of the channel adjacent the slot edges thus assuring that the rods 22 will not be interfered with by external objects.

In order that the wire coil in the container be retained in its position during transportation a cover member 32 is provided. The member 32 has an annular ring 33 fixed to the under surface thereof which ring enters the space between the container 19 and the core 11 and presses against a coil lying in this annular space thereby preventing it from shifting during movement of the container.

Cover 32 has a dependent annular flange 34 thereon with a beaded rim 35. Clamps such as those shown at 36, FIGURE 2, are provided which engage beaded rim 35 and through toggle or other suitable action pull the cover 32 tightly down against the disk 14 and against the upper edge of container 10.

In operation a few turns of coil are formed'on an auxiliary platform (not shown) but comprising'a split annular ring, two portions of Whichhave been removed into position adjacent each other. This is done in order that the wire drawing machine may be continuously operated during the period in which an empty container is substituted for a full one.

As soon asthe empty container has been moved into position the two halves of this auxiliary platform, i.e., the two halves of the split ring are moved apart and the Patented Dec. 26, 1961 coil comprising but a few turns is dropped into the annular space between container and core 11. As the drawing machine continues in operation, the wire coming therefrom is formed into turns in the container lying first on the rods 22 and subsequently on the previously deposited turns above that.

As the wire is deposited springs 21 yield and, as a consequence, the platform formed by the rods 22 descends. At this point it should be mentioned that if fine wire is being placed in the container an annular ring will be placed upon the rods 22 since otherwise the wire might sag between the rods. As the disk 16 and rods 22 descend the end 30 of spring 28 will make contact with the base of container 10. This will increase the resistance to downward descent and will permit the wire to build up to a desired degree in the annular space before the limit of movement of disk 16 and rods 22 has been attained. It will be seen that by this arrangement the angle of the wire between the drawing block and the point of deposit in the container is maintained relatively small whereas if the false bottom were not provided the angle would be relatively steep at the start of formation of the coil in the container. Since the snarling of wire is brought about primarily because of the depth of the container heretofore in use resulting in the steep angle mentioned, my arrangement substantially eliminates snarling. Moreover, the use of the cover member with its annular ring compresses the turns of the coil in the container and assures that they will retain their properly coiled position during shipment of the container.

While I have described one embodiment of my inven tion utilizing two sets of springs, one of which comes into action subsequent to the other, it will be understood that a single set of springs such as springs 21 may be utilized or if desired the springs 21 may be omitted and a single spring such as 30, elongated to make contact with the base of the container when the disk 16 is in its upper position, may be employed. In fact, by a proper correlation of the two spring sets the angle of deposit of the wire may be kept quite small, even smaller than that corresponding to a container of half depth while at the same time providing the advantages of the container of standard depth. Obviously the resiliency of the springs is correlated with the type of wire deposited in the container so that the rate of elongation or compression of the springs is a proper function of the weight of the wire being coiled.

While I have described a preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that I wish to be limited not by the foregoing description, but solely by the claims granted to me.

What is claimed is:

l. A container to receive wire from a drawing machine or the like comprising, in combination, a base, two spaced concentric cylindrical upstanding walls fixed to said base forming an annular cylindrical container, wire supporting members extending radially across said annular space, and resilient means normally holding said wire supporting members spaced from the base of said container, said resilient means yielding as wire is accumulated on said wire supporting members.

2. A container adapted to receive wire from a drawing machine or the like, comprising a base having a pair of concentric hollow cylinders fixed thereto forming an annular receptacle, longitudinal slots in the inner one of said hollow cylinders, said slots extending upwardly from said base, members extending outwardly from the interior of said inner cylinder through said slots and across said annular space to support wire as it is coiled thereon, and means for resiliently urging said members upwardly and into engagement with the upper terminations of said slots, said resilient means yielding as wire is accumulated on said wire supporting members.

3. A container adapted to receive wire from a drawing machine or the like, comprising a base having a pair of concentric hollow cylinders fixed thereto forming an annular receptacle, longitudinal slots in the inner one of said hollow cylinders, said slots extending upwardly from said base, a disk having flanges thereon slidably mounted within said inner cylinder for movement axially thereof, a plurality of Wire supporting fingers fixed to said disk and extending radially outwardly through said longitudinal slots and across said annular space, and resilient means urging said disk away from said base to thereby resiliently support a coil of wire deposited on said members by the drawing machine, said resilient means yielding as wire is accumulated on said wire supporting members.

4. A container as claimed in claim 3 wherein said longitudinal slots extend for substantially one-half of the vertical dimension of said cylinders.

5. A device as claimed in claim 3 wherein said inner cylinder has a fixed supporting member at the top thereof and said resilient means comprises coil springs extending between said supporting member and said disk.

6. A container as claimed in claim 3 wherein both said inner and outer cylinders are provided with longi-" tudinal slots extending for substantially half the vertical dimension of said cylinders and wherein said outwardly extending coil supporting members pass through both sets of slots and are guided thereby.

7. A container as claimed in claim 3 wherein said radially outwardly extending coil supporting members and cooperating slots are spaced at uniform distances around the circumference of said cylinders.

8. A container as claimed in claim 5 wherein said disk has a plurality of reenforcing webs extending across chords thereof and said supporting member comprises a closure member for said inner cylinder, said disk has an equal plurality of correspondingly placed chordal reenforcing members and wherein said resilient means comprises coil springs having their ends fixed in correspond ing chordal members of said disk and said closure memher.

9. A container as claimed in claim 5 wherein said disk has a compression spring fixed thereto and extending axially thereof towards said base, said compression spring being out of engagement with said base in the initial position of said disk and serving to add resistance to downward movement of said wire coil supporting members as the weight of wire on said members increases beyond a predetermined limit.

10. A container as claimed in claim 9 wherein said disk has a central aperture herein, and has a cylindrical housing fixed to the upper surface of said disk concentric with said aperture to the upper end of which said compression spring is fixed.

11. A container as claimed in claim 5 wherein a cover member is provided for said annular space, said cover member comprising a disk having an annular rim fixed to the lower surface thereof and adapted to enter into the annular space between said inner and outer cylinders and wherein said outer cylinder has fastening members thereon adapted to engage with projections from said cover disk to thereby hold said disk in position against the upper edges of said inner and outer cylinders whereby the downwardly projecting annular rim of said cover engages wire coiled in said annular space and prevents movement thereof during shipment of the container.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Great Britain Dec. 8, 1927 

